Searching for miracles and healings - if there is a God and if He is willing to interact with humans there should be some proof of such interaction. Taking into account that one of the design premises of our world is not to force humans to believe but to find those who are willing to, such events will need to be searched for.
I have searched for this over the years and I really am convinced that I have found some - mostly in terms of supernatural healings. I will start to list some of these findings below.
You will often hear that people say that there are no medically documented healings. However I have found some, so I am not sure how they arrive at such a statement. I can only speculate that most people that say that, repeat what they have heard from others without checking. I also think that people do not fully think through what documentation they actually have in mind.
Many people that get healed supernaturally find improvement and that is the end of the story as far as they are concerned. They believe in God already and they are not involved in debates about such things as whether God exists or not. They often don't bother to record such events and they often forget that they were healed themselves.
Some people will state that the only healings that take place are ambigious healings that could have happened by other means too. They will say that the person that was healed was praying and using medication and was actually healed by the medication or by luck via spontaneous remission. Therefore they say that the person falsely attributes the healing to God. I am sure that there are such cases, however there are many cases where this was very clearly not the case at all.
Lastly, when there are witnesses to an obvious healing - medical documentation is not always needed. If people report somebody was blind and then they report that now the person can see, if they knew the person, chances are that they are correct. Testimonies can be just as valid as medical reports.
In addition to all the below I have set up a page with examples of answered prayers from my own life and others. These can also be counted as supernatural events:
Examples of Answered Prayer
Case 1: Marlene Kleepes - healed from cerebral palsey
This lady had cerebral palsy. she was severly affected. She struggled to talk and to move around, had seizures and worse. I add two links below. The first is a documentary and the second is an interview with her about the healing.
http://www1.cbn.com/700club/woman-healed-cerebral-palsy-through-vision?fbclid=IwAR29YCQqzekI9zIc8-zDW1otNjfOGcFQSo2SfmJIARoLw1uNqzUD-JzZ-rA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bsKnpOYMUs
Below find an article that she wrote about her healing a year after the event. At the end there is a bit of coroboration that was done by somebody that contacted the clinic she was at before her healing.
From the May 1982 issue of "Message of the Open Bible" pages 6 to 8.
Case 2: Marolyn Ford - healed from blindness.
She started to lose her central vision aged 18. She was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration. The doctor concluded that there was no treatment available.
She went for training of the blind. See the certificate below.
After 13 years, one night her husband prayed for her in 1972. After praying when she opened her eyes she could see perfectly.
After examining her eyes her doctor was not sure how they were now able to see since the damage still looked unchanged and severe. However they do see very well. See the doctor's report below.
Case 3: Barbara Snyder (Barbara Cummiskey Snyder) - healed from multiple sclerosis
This lady had a very severe case of multiple sclerosis. They predicted that she would die soon. She was blind, bedridden with severely impaired breathing due to a paralyzed diaphragm and a collapsed lung. Bladder control and stomach control was lost. Below is an account of her healing after prayer as written by her doctor. This therefore counts as a medically documented healing.
By Thomas Marshall, MD:
(quoted from the book Physician's Untold Stories Chapter 22 by Scott Kolbaba)
[As Barb became progressively more disabled by her multiple sclerosis, she elected to enroll in hospice. To qualify for this compassionate home nursing program, her life expectancy needed to be less than six months. I don’t think this was an exaggeration, since Barb was confined to bed, her body contracted in a permanent fetal position, with a tracheostomy tube in her neck to provide oxygen to her compromised lungs, and a feeding tube in her stomach, since she could no longer swallow. Her hands were so permanently flexed that her fingers nearly touched her wrists.
I had known Barb for over ten years, but just recently assumed her care from a colleague who was moving out of the area. It was hard for me to see her so debilitated. She couldn’t leave her room, so I made periodic house calls, but there was really nothing I could do at this point. Her parents were incredibly supportive, as were the members of her church. Pastor Bailie, her minister, agreed with my dismal prognosis and, when he saw her the week before, told me that he thought it would be the last time he would see her alive.
Barbara’s illness started when she was in high school, at age fifteen. At the time, she was a gymnast, played the flute in the orchestra, and was active in a church youth group. She remembers not being able to grasp the rings in gym, and then slipping and falling down. At first her family thought she was clumsy. She occasionally tripped or bumped into a wall while walking, and her classmates, thinking that she had been drinking, whispered about her behind her back, and sadly, even began to shun her.
When Barbara first consulted her doctor, she was referred to a local neurologist. He ordered multiple tests and scans, but no cause could be found. This was in the late 1960s when we did not have CT scanners, MRIs, and all the sophisticated imaging and diagnostics we have today. She was sent to medical centers with the same baffling conclusions. Multiple sclerosis was considered, but she seemed too young for that. All the while she continued to deteriorate. Her handwriting was the next function she lost. She became embarrassed to write in front of others because of her trembling hands, and her writing looked like it came from the hand of a ninety-year-old. She went through a period of questioning her worth and feeling helpless.
With supreme effort, Barbara graduated from high school. However, when she enrolled in college, she developed double vision and had to drop out because she could not physically keep up. She was devastated. Before her illness, she was involved with multiple school activities, and now she could not even keep up with her basic courses.
It was 1970, and, by this time, her symptoms and her diagnostic tests, including spinal taps, confirmed the diagnosis of progressive multiple sclerosis. The prognosis was not good, but she was determined to do the best she could in everything she did. At times, the disease seemed to become inactive, a common occurrence in multiple sclerosis, with relapses and remissions, but she never improved. She would get through a crisis, and then stabilize on a plateau that was lower than her last remission.
In the early 1970s, she had two respiratory arrests because the muscles of breathing were affected, requiring emergency hospitalization. During her remissions, she was able to return to college as a handicapped student and work as a secretary. But her efforts to be “normal” were always interrupted by the progression of her disease. She could not clear her secretions, and, with a paralyzed diaphragm, was recurrently hospitalized for pneumonias and asthma.
Then came one of the most humiliating problems for a young woman: losing the ability to control urination and bowels. She had to have a catheter permanently placed into her bladder and an ileostomy created in her abdomen, with a bag attached for her bowels.
Her breathing became progressively more difficult, and she was referred to the Mayo Clinic in 1978 for a second opinion. She now needed continuous oxygen, and her muscles and joints were becoming contracted and deformed because she could not move or exercise them. Mayo was her last hope, but they had no recommendations to help stop this progressive wasting disease except to pray for a miracle.
When her MS was first diagnosed, Barbara admitted to losing faith in a supreme being. Why would God allow such a devastating disease to ravish an innocent young girl? But as she matured, and with the love and counseling of her minister, Pastor Bailie, she grew stronger in her belief that a loving God participates in our lives. Everyone in her church and community was praying for her.
Despite all the efforts, her condition continued to deteriorate, and she began to lose her vision and soon could not read anymore. She became legally blind and could hardly move out of her bed. A lung collapsed and required a large tube to be placed in her chest to expand the lung. Then in 1980, to add to her humiliation, she required the creation of a tracheostomy, a hole in her neck for a breathing tube connected to oxygen to keep her from being chronically short of breath.
At this point, I sat down with Barb and her family and explained that it was just a matter of time before she would die, since the next major infection would likely take her. We all agreed not to do any heroics, including no CPR and no further hospitalization. This would only prolong the inevitable. Our meeting ended in a tearful prayer.
June 7, 1981, a Sunday, was her sister Jan’s birthday. Barb was looking forward to the celebration at their home. She tried to help with the birthday preparations but being out of bed was too exhausting for her, even with her power wheelchair equipped with oxygen to her tracheostomy tube. Her first visitor was her Aunt Ruthie, who read cards and letters written to Barb after her tragic story aired on a local radio station, WMBI. Their program asked for prayers and letters for people who were terminally ill. There were so many letters that Aunt Ruthie had trouble carrying the large mail bag. Almost every letter included a prayer for Barb to be healed. The response was overwhelming.
In the early afternoon, two girlfriends came to visit after church. Barb became weary with all the attention and was quiet while the girls made small talk. When there was a lull in the conversation, a man’s voice spoke from behind Barb—but there was no man in the room! The words were clear and articulate and spoken with great authority, but also with great compassion. The voice said, “My child, get up and walk!” Barb turned around. No one was standing there, but she knew immediately who was speaking. “I don’t know what you are going to think about this,” she announced, “but God just told me to get up and walk.” Her friends suddenly became very quiet. “I know he really did,” Barb insisted. “Run and get my family. I want them here with us!” Her friends, recognizing the urgency in Barb’s voice, bounded to the doorway to yell for her family, “Come quick; come quick!”
Barb felt compelled to do immediately what she was divinely instructed, so she literally jumped out of bed and removed her oxygen. She was standing on legs that had not supported her for years. Her vision was back, and she was no longer short of breath, even without her oxygen. Her contractions were gone, and she could move her feet and hands freely. As she walked out of the room, she was first met by her mother who immediately dropped to her knees and felt Barb’s calves. “You have muscles again!” she yelled. Her father came running in next, hugged Barb, and whisked her off for a waltz around the family room.
A distressed occupational therapist tried to restart her oxygen, but after she realized what was happening, she simply said, “This contradicts everything I ever learned in school.” At the request of Barb’s mother, everyone moved into the living room to offer a prayer. Barb sat down on the couch but was so excited that she could sit and get up that she went up and down at least ten times before she could sit still for the tearful prayer of thanksgiving offered by her mother.
That evening, Pastor Bailie was leading the worship service at Wheaton Wesleyan Church. Barb was anxious to reveal the miracle to all of her church friends, but she was late. She had no clothes to wear. All of her regular dresses had been given away years ago when she became contracted and essentially bedridden. Finally a neighbor was able to bring over a dress and some shoes, and they headed off to church.
As they arrived at the building, Barb bounded up the front stairs ahead of her parents. She waited in the back of the church until Pastor Bailie asked if there were any announcements from the congregation. Barbara then stepped into the center aisle, and, as she casually strolled toward the front, she could feel her heart pounding. Pastor Bailie, the first to see her, fell against the pulpit and began to murmur over and over, “This is nice, this is very nice, this is nice…”
When members of the congregation looked back a sudden cacophony of whispers came from all parts of the church. “Who is that?” came from the front. “That’s Barb!” came from the back. “There’s Barb!” “Look, there’s Barb Cummiskey!” “I thought she was sick!” “Look at Barb Cummiskey walking down the aisle! She’s walking !” “ That’s Barb Cummiskey !” Everyone started clapping, and then, as if led by a divine conductor, the entire congregation began to sing.
Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see…
Tears of joy ran down every face. Pastor Bailie eventually regained his composure and invited Barb to come to the front to tell her amazing story. There was no sermon, but that was a service no one will ever forget. The next day was a Monday, and Barb called our office for an appointment. My nurse didn’t know what to say when she called. But the greatest surprise was when I saw her in the hallway of our office, walking toward me. I thought I was seeing an apparition! Here was my patient, who was not expected to live another week, totally cured.
I stopped all of her medication and took out her bladder catheter, but she wasn’t quite ready to have the tracheostomy tube removed until another visit. No one had ever seen anything like this before. That afternoon, we sent Barb for a chest X-ray. Her lungs were now perfectly normal, with the collapsed lung totally expanded with no infiltrate or other abnormality that had existed before.
I have never witnessed anything like this before or since and considered it a rare privilege to observe the Hand of God performing a true miracle. Barb has gone on to live a normal life in every way. She subsequently married a minister and feels her calling in life is to serve others, which is what she did after her life was miraculously preserved by her Creator.]
Below is a medical report created soon after Barbara was healed. If you look carefully you can make out the text. It was signed by Harold Adolph MD. I managed to get into contact with him via email. He confirmed to me that this healing was not related to any medical treatment Barbara received from him or any of the other doctors. He confirmed that in his opinion this healing was supernatural.
Below is a more recent photo of Barbara - Doctor Harold Adolph confirmed to me that the person in this photo is Barbara.
The symptoms never returned again.
Case 4: Alice Baker - healed overnight of facial cancer that had eaten away parts of her lips. The healing took place in September 1920 in Lima, Ohio at a healing meeting of F.F. Bosworth.
Below follows an account of facial features that were regenerated overnight after a healing meeting. This account was written it looks like a year after the healing. It is followed by a corroboration of a second person.
Quoted from Christ the Healer by FF Bosworth pages 173 - 179, ISBN 0-88368-591-4:
[About four years ago, a cancer started on my face. It was, at first, apparently only a small wart on my nose. I kept scratching it until it became a sore, and then it was apparent that a cancer had developed. At that time, I suffered very much, but before the second year, the pain and agony were extreme. It was necessary to keep my face covered, both on account of its appearance and the neces-sity of keeping cloths saturated with ether and other aesthetics to check the pain. I spent about $500 for aesthetics during the last year I was sick. This was the only means of easing the suf-fering. When I removed the cloth, the pain was
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so intense that I was blinded and could not see my hand before my face. I went from one physician to another in Ohio, Indiana, New York, and New Jersey, wherever I heard of a good one, looking for relief. I am sure I consulted more than fifty of them. But all of them said there was no hope and that they could do nothing for me. But, praise the Lord, in September 1920, I heard of the Bosworth meetings that were being held in my hometown, Lima, Ohio. I went prompted by no other desire than to get healed. I had never heard the Gospel preached in this way before, and went forward imme-diately. When I was asked to pray, I did not know how, and the words had to be put into my mouth; but as I repeated them, faith came into my heart, and I began to be very happy. They laid hands on me for healing, and as they did so, I could feel the power of God going through my body. It rose up into my face. The feeling was that of a tight rubber cap over my face that was being slipped off, little by little. When it reached the top of my head, I saw a bright light and I had a vision of Jesus stand-ing right before me. Then I shouted in earnest, although I had not been able to do so before. As soon as the hands were laid on me, the pain ceased, and I knew I was healed. Others tell me I cried out, "I am saved and healed," and that I threw away the cloth that had covered my face. I was so happy that I was not aware of what I was doing. I shouted and shouted with joy, went home shouting, shouted almost all night, and continued shouting when I arose in the morn-ing.
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When I arose, my daughter had gotten breakfast. She looked at me and exclaimed, "Oh, Mother!" There was a big mirror in the dining room, and I looked in that. I saw that my upper lip, parts of which had been eaten away previously, was healed. It had been eaten away so that the roots of my teeth showed. During the night, it had filled in with new flesh, was covered with fresh skin, and was as solid and clear as it is at present. There were no traces left of the cancer except the scars. Two scabs that had been on my face were still there, but later disappeared. But wherever the skin had been gone, it was completely healed during the night and the new skin had formed. My right thumb had been crippled for four years. My instep had been broken. They were both healed at the same time as the cancer. I have not had pain from either of them since that time. When I saw that my lip was restored, I shouted so loud that the home soon filled up with neighbors, to whom I told the story of what God had done for me. My children took my healing as an indi-cation that the Lord would soon take me to heaven, and if I went out to the neighbors and stayed longer than I expected, they would come to see if I was still on the earth. For two years, I had not been able to take anything except soup or milk. I could not open my mouth far enough to take food in, and had to sip liquid from a small spoon held to my lips. I was healed on Friday night, and on Saturday morning I took up knife and fork and began to eat just as I did before I was afflicted. When the
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Bosworth brothers came to see me the same morning, I took a large tablespoon, opened my mouth wide, and showed them how I could eat. When they came, I was out visiting the neigh-bors and showing them my face, but they waited at my home until I returned and rejoiced with me over the healing. On Sunday, I went out to be baptized. On Saturday, something had said to me, "Go into the water." Brother Bosworth explained to me what it meant, and I obeyed and was baptized. On Monday, my daughter had a bushel of apples, and I sat peeling them and singing, "I know the Lord laid His hands on me; He healed the sick and raised the dead." I peeled the whole bushel before I realized that something had happened to my crippled hand. Then I found it was perfectly well. As soon as the news of my healing spread, I had many callers asking for confirmation of it. I received letters from all over the world asking about it, and one day I received nine-teen. I also had many out-of-town callers on the same errand. I was able to refer them to any of my neighbors about my previous condi-tion, as all knew it. Three months ago, a doctor who had formerly prescribed for me came to my house. He asked me how I was getting along. I told him I was well and praising the Lord. He wanted to know what doctor I had. I told him, "Dr. Jesus." He said, "How long has he been here?" I answered, "As long as I have." He did not know that I meant the Lord Jesus Christ. When he understood, he shouted with laugh-ter and was very happy over it. On Monday, after peeling the apples, I went and prayed for a
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woman who had cancer. She went to the meet-ing a night or two afterward and was healed. As I came out of her house praising the Lord, I passed the gas plant. The men working there asked me what the matter was. One of them must have been a Christian, for when I told them, he began to shout. Since my healing a year ago, I have not had any symptoms whatever of the cancer or any pain in my hand or foot; but about a month before coming to Toledo, I let a very large lump of coal fall on my foot. It was very badly bruised. Three or four days before I came here, a piece of bone about one-half inch long came out of it. After coming to Toledo, I was prayed for, and the foot healed. There has been no pain in it since then. Since I was saved, I have been called away many times to pray for the sick. In one case, it was a little boy, Billy Jones, who had been confined to his bed for several months. He was paralyzed and had bad sores on his back and face. I prayed for him and told the parents that in nine days he would walk. I said that because it seemed that a voice came to me with that message. In just nine days from that time, he walked to my house, two blocks away. One day last winter, I was without coal. I knew that the Lord had promised to take care of me, so I prayed about it. On going down-stairs, I found a lump of coal that filled a bushel basket when we broke it up. I never learned who sent it. When I pray for anything I need, I am sure to get it, just as if I had a friendly neighbor and she had given it to me. I do not always get it right away, but it comes neverthe-less.
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Just before I came to Toledo on this visit, I said to the Lord, "I would like to be in the Bos-worth meetings once more." He immediately provided the money for me to go to Toledo. I knew I was going to a strange place, so I said, "Lord, I know you are going to take care of me." Through no effort of mine, He provided a beautiful place for me to stay while here. When I had the cancer, I was obliged to sell my clothes to provide money for the ether, drugs, and other needs; so when I was healed, I was necessarily poor. But He has provided ever since. I have never wanted for a thing. The first of April, last, we were exposed to the smallpox. The authorities quarantined us and would not provide for us. I prayed, and one day when we had run out of everything, there stood a man at the door with a great big basket of things. Both my daughter and I had a bad case of the disease but had no physician except Jesus, and came out all right, without any scars. After nearly three years of suffering, to be instantly set free! It is almost too good to be true.
Mrs. Alice Baker, Lima, OH
----
Miss Lida Clark's Confirmation of Mrs. Alice Baker's Cancer Testimony
I was present at the time Mrs. Baker was healed of her cancer. After she had been anointed and prayed for, she said to someone, "Take that cloth off." The other person loos-ened it from her face, and Mrs. Baker took it and threw it away. She appeared to be just filled
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with the Holy Spirit. She cried out, "I am saved and healed," as she sprang to her feet. It could not have appeared to the audience that she was healed, any more than it did to me. Her face was a horrible sight. It was a mass of blood, pus, and open sores. But she said afterward that the pain had ceased and that she had the assurance in her heart that she was healed. The odor from the cancer was so offensive that the worker who filled out her card was sick from it that evening and all the next day. But there was no odor the next night. I sat right alongside her and know that this was the case. And the cancer, the holes in her lip, and all the sores had disappeared. She was healed—that was undeniable. After her healing, I saw a physician who had treated her during her illness. After hear-ing that she had been healed, he asked me to tell him what I had actually seen. I told him that I saw her come in with the cloth on her face, was present when she was prayed for, heard her say, as she took the cloth off, that she was healed, and saw her walk down the street without the cloth. He said that it was impossible, that she could not have walked out without the cloth over her face because the pain would have been so intense as to have blinded her, and she could not have found her way out of the hall. He said, "Girl, you have been hypnotized; that could not be so." I saw him again after he had seen her, and he said it certainly was a marvelous thing for her. He acknowledged it was so.
Miss Lida Clark, Lima, Ohio
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Case 5: Mrs. Edith I. Watt Lau, Detroit, MI - Cross eyed lady healed in January 1921 in Detroit
Quoted from Christ the Healer by FF Bosworth pages 171 - 173, ISBN 0-88368-591-4
I was a church member and had been one for five years. I knew that Jesus was the Son of God and that He shed His blood on the cross. But I did not know—had never heard that it was for me—that I was lost and that I could be saved and know it, instead of waiting until I died to learn whether I got to heaven or not. However, I was proud of the church and would never think of going into another denom-ination's meeting. But I was in need of healing. I had been very farsighted all my life and had been cross-eyed in one eye for fifteen years. I wore powerful glasses for over eleven years and had to have them changed by a specialist about every six months. When deprived of my glasses for just a few moments, I would suffer severe headaches, and could not see well enough to dis-tinguish faces or furniture. Everything would be hazy and blurred. A friend in Pittsburgh sent me a Tribune giving testimonies and announcing the Bos-worth meetings in Detroit. I went to the meet-ing January 11, 1921, and was saved right in my seat. I don't remember the text or anything about that night except that I felt much lighter when I went out than when I came in. That week, the Lord began dealing with me, and "behold old things passed away and all things became as new." The next morning, I went up for healing. Brother B. B. Bosworth prayed for me, and I was instantly healed. He held up the seeker's card and I could read everything on it. I was just dumbfounded.
For two hours, my eyes were perfectly straight and my vision normal. Then, both went back and were worse than they had ever been all the rest of that day and all the next day. Some of the folks at home tried to urge me to put my glasses back on—they said that I would go blind altogether. But, thank God, I refused and just trusted Him. The following day, my eyes were perfectly straight and kept getting stronger all along, until now they are just as normal as anyone's. I forgot to mention that during the time the Lord was testing me, I could read my Bible, but nothing else. Two weeks after the Lord so wonderfully healed me, He baptized and filled me with the Holy Spirit and still keeps me filled. I do praise God that He put healing in the Gospel and that the Bos-worth brothers ever came to Detroit and told us about it. Since the Lord healed me, I have never even had a headache from my eyes. There is no one more real to me than my Lord, and He is nearer and dearer each day. I could never begin to tell what He has done for me. Almost every time I give my testimony, I hear of someone who has been helped, either physically or spiritually. I praise God that He cares for all things that concern us. When the Lord told us to go to St. Paul, we had only two cents (Mrs. Monroe and I). After we told the Lord we would go, He gave us the fare. I had never heard of any such thing as trusting the Lord for financial aid until Mr. Bosworth told of his experiences. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." One morning, we had thirteen cents; after getting a light breakfast,
we had one cent left. So we cried out, shouting "glory" in the pocketbooks. (No one knew that we had gone on faith.) At the exact time that we did this, a special delivery letter was sent to us with two dollars in it. Three days later, when our rent was due, the Lord sent in fourteen dollars. That is the way He provided. When we were coming home, we had five dollars and twelve cents. I asked the Lord for my fare. By twelve that night (Saturday), He sent it in, and one dollar and eighty-five cents more. I have had to rely on His promises for everything since, and He has never failed me. Use this testimony as you see fit—by the guid-ance of the Holy Spirit and all for the glory of God. Mrs. Edith I. Watt Lau, Detroit, MI
(This testimony was given a year after her heal-ing.)
Case 6: Bruce van Natta - Small intestines lengthened 3 fold after prayer from about 95 cm to 274 - 300 cm.
This is another case of a
medically documented healing. You can read a lot of the details in the following book: The Insanity of Unbelief, A Journalist's Journey from Belief to Skepticism to Deep Faith – Max Davis, pages 38 - 44. In the book you will find excerpts of the medical documents.
I will try to summarize the details here.
Bruce van Natta was a diesel mechanic. On 16 November 2006 he was crushed under a very heavy 6 ton truck while working on it. The jack slipped out from under the truck and his chest, abdomen and pelvis was crushed under the front axle. Major arteries were severed. He should have bled out very quickly. He had an out of body experience the detail of which I will not go into here. He saw some angels working on his body and it seems they may have had something to do with him not bleeding out immediately.
He was admitted to hospital and several emergency and corrective procedures were done. In the process most of his small intestines had to be removed leaving about 95 - 100 cm. Due to the short amount of small intestines his body was starving away slowly while he lay in hospital. They fed him intravenously but the doctors estimated that it would only take 1,5 years before he would die due to not absorbing enough nutrients. By February 2007 his weight was down to 54Kg / 120 pounds from about 81 Kg / 180 pounds. He was dying.
God dealt with a man Bruce Carlson to go and pray for Bruce van Natta. He flew in from New York to Wisconsen. There he prayed for Bruce. Below is Bruce van Natta's account of what happened quoted from The Insanity of Unbelief:
After greeting us, Bruce Carlson sings a couple of praise songs. I’m laying there not feeling like singing at all. After that, he just prayed a short little prayer along the lines of “Lord I know You’ve heard all the prayers of all the people who have prayed for Bruce already, and I just add my prayers to those prayers. I ask that all those prayers would come to fruition today and heal him.” Then he walked up to me and placed his right hand on my forehead. The kind of church I went to, we didn’t lay hands on people like that. He started praying like Jesus prayed, which was totally different than how I had heard anyone pray before. He commanded my small intestines to grow. “I command you to supernaturally grow in the name of Jesus.” I had my eyes closed. All of a sudden, I felt strong, high voltage electricity come out of his hand into my forehead and right down into my stomach. I actually felt electricity. It was like touching an electric fence. Zap. It wasn’t emotion. It was a real feeling. And you gotta know that I wasn’t expecting anything. I was in bad shape. I was weak, had no energy. I was laying there in the process of dying. Another thing, I come from a church where this kind of thing doesn’t happen. All of a sudden, I began to feel my small intestines moving around. I’m not kidding. It felt like a snake uncoiled in my stomach. I actually said that to Brian and Bruce, who were in the room, “Hey, it just felt like a snake uncoiled in my stomach!”After this Bruce started to gain weight instead of losing weight (which to me confirms that God really did heal him). That alarmed the medical personell. They thought he was maybe retaining water. They eventually did an X-ray with him drinking barium to see what was going on internally. They were shocked to see his small intestines was now around 274 - 300 cm long instead of 95 - 100 cm. Basically it went from about 3 rulers long to 9 rulers long - with rulers being about 30 cm. This healing saved his life, he was no longer starving. At the time of writing the book The Insanity of Unbelief he was weighing 79 Kg / 175 pounds again. Below is Bruce's account of this barium test quoted from the same book:
Below I paste quotes from the medical records along with explanations from the book The Insanity of Unbelief.
Quote (A): “Small bowel resection x 3…Last night he underwent resection of the 4 th portion of his duodenum and resection of mid-jejunum to terminal ileum. In all, he had 75 cm of proximal jejunum and 25 cm of distal ileum with preservation of his ileocecal valve.”
The term resection means the surgical removal of an organ. Three portions of the small bowel were surgically removed. According to the above statement, a portion of his duodenum was removed. All of his jejunum was removed except 75 centimeters. The whole jejunum is about 250 centimeters or about 8 feet. All of his ileum was removed except 25 centimeters. The whole ileum is about 400 centimeters or about 13 feet. At this point, Bruce had 100 centimeters of small intestines left, 3.2 feet out of 21 feet. About 18 feet was resected or surgically removed.
Quote (B): “These 3 segments were transected using GIA. These small bowels were sent for gross and permanent pathology.”
GIA, the process of gastrointestinal anastomosis, is the removing of the intestine and the clamping or stapling together of the ends of the viable pieces. This statement is incredibly important because what it says is that the surgically removed small intestines were actually sent to permanent pathology. When this happens, those organs never go back into the patient. I want to stress that 18 feet of Bruce’s small intestines were physically removed. They were not folded or hidden somewhere in his body.
Quote (C): “At this point, we found approximately 75 cm of viable jejunum…Approximately 25 cm of viable but congested ileum…”
The word viable here means “usable.” The inference of course would be that if only 100 centimeters is viable, then 550 centimeters or 18 feet is not viable. That’s why they were removed.
Quote (D): “At this point were performed intraoperative Doppler examination. Proximal jejunum approximately 75 cm in length had triphasic Doppler signals… Distal portion of the distal ileum approximately 25 cm in length had also a dopplable signal but seemed congested due to decreased venous drainage.”
This perhaps is the most telling quote. The Doppler exam is basically an ultrasound. This was done after the surgical removal of the small intestines. So that means the signal is only going to pick up what is actually present. If there would have been more intestines, say 300 centimeters, the Doppler would have picked it up. The fact that it only picked up 75 centimeters and 25 centimeters is because that’s all that was there.Below - lastly is a quote from the senior radialogist after the barium test - also taken from The Insanity of Unbelief:
… As I look at the small bowel remaining, I think you have about one half of the normal length remaining. If the small bowel is thought to be anywhere from 16 to 22 feet, I am going to make the conversion into cm’s easier by estimating some things. As we discussed if approximately half of the small bowel could be 9 feet, and there are approximately 3 feet to a meter (a meter is really 39 inches, not 36) then the amount of small bowel in cm’s is about 300 cm’s. —Dr. A.T., Senior RadiologistAnd so Bruce's life was saved. You can search for more information on Youtube.
Case 7: Disabled woman healed instantly after prayerThe following case was related by W. Hacking in the book "Smith Wigglesworth Remembered - A Great Challenge To Daring Faith"
It relates how he saw Smith Wigglesworth the first time after he and a group of friends decided to take a disabled female friend to one of his meetings for prayer. I include this account because the book was written many years after the healing. Therefore the healing as related was real and permanent. It also mentions that her husband - an alcoholic - was impacted so much that he accepted Jesus into his life two weeks after the healing. This is another telling sign that the healing was very real.
Smith Wigglesworth (10 June 1859 – 12 March 1947) was a healing evangelist. He prayed for many sick people all over the world.
Below follows the account of the event by W. Hacking:
Therefore, it was with great excitement that we looked forward to visiting Preston to hear him. The Assembly room at Preston was situated in Lancaster Road. It was a large room, quite central, but up a dingy stairway of 45 steps. The entrance to this room was uninviting, but week by week and several times during the week, a goodly company of God's people gathered under the godly and inspired leadership of the late Thomas Myerscough. From time to time, many of the leading people of the Pentecostal testimony from various countries visited this room to minister.
It was this Assembly that gave us three out-standing missionary pioneers to the Belgian Congo Brothers Burton, Salter, and Hodgson as well as many others who followed them. So it was on this memorable week-night that a small company of us (mostly young people from Blackburn) made our way to this "upper room." One of our Blackburn friends at this time was a chronic invalid. She dragged herself around the
page 21
house slowly by the help of the chairs and the table. Her limbs were hideously swollen. She had not done any housework for years. She was suffering from what the doctors described as a complicated condition of rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, neuritis, and bronchitis. Two or three of us, especially anxious to see her delivered, persuaded her to go to Preston. It was a feat of achievement quite equal to that accomplished by the four friends who got the Paralytic to Jesus. (Mark 2:3.) With the aid of two sticks, it took us three-quarters of an hour to get her from Preston Station to that "upper room," a mere half-mile away. (In those days we could not afford a taxi.) The meeting began and Brother Wigglesworth started his message. At ten minutes to ten o'clock, he was still preaching a marvelous message on Peter's deliverance from prison. (Acts 12.) Since our train left Preston at 10:15 p.m., we interrupted the preaching to request prayer for our sister. Brother Wigglesworth laid his hands on her and drastically rebuked the affliction. The next we knew, she was running down the stairs, and we were chasing after her! She was instantly and completely healed! The next day, she did all her housework. This miracle stirred the neighborhood where she lived
page 22
and led to the salvation of souls, some becoming earnest members of the young Assembly. More wonderful still, her husband, a confirmed drunkard on the verge of delirium tremens, came under deep conviction. Two weeks later in the middle of the night, he crawled out of his bed and walked the floor, crying to God for mercy. In a matter of moments God wondrously saved him and at the same time filled him with the Holy Ghost. Like Saul of Tarsus, upon his miraculous and sudden conversion, he "joined himself to the disciples . . . and straightway preached Christ." (Acts 10:26; 9:20.) He became the first treasurer of our newly formed Assembly. This was my first view of Smith Wigglesworth — a view from a distance.
page 23
Case 8: Healing from severe spinal curvature and deformity, heart failure, displaced organs, seizures and partial paralysis at age 14/15 on the 24th of August 1941 (Betty Baxter).This is quite a remarkable healing. This lady suffered severely for many years. At age 11 she was sent home from hospital as a person for which they could do nothing further. She was in extreme pain. She had grown resistant to morphine. She suffered at home for some years. It looks like until she was 14 or 15. At one point she almost died and had either a vision or a near death experience (NDE). Jesus told her that her time had not come yet and that she would have to go back, but that He would heal her that fall.
Jesus later gave her and her mother separately the date and time upon which He would heal her. Sunday 24 August 1941 at 3 PM in the afternoon.
At that time some people gathered with them at their home to witness the foretold event. It also turned out exactly that way. Jesus appeared to Betty and healed her in a few moments.
Shortly after that Betty started to witness about her healing. She kept on witnessing for many years.
Here find the person's own text account of the healing.
The editor of the newspaper wrote the following letter to Betty in response to some letter she sent him earlier:
Below is a YouTube link of her still telling about her healing in 1985:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzUoGgynKAOne of her brother's account of the healing - he was 12 and present when it happned. The audio is very bad. See an attempted transcript below. This recording seems to have been done around 2008. The brother has passed away since. Parts in [] in the transcript are not fully resolved yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ew99Cy8kfI-------Transcript Start-------
"I know Dad took her to... in'41...
[Look at that. What ... we in? Help you out.
Look at that. That’s terrible of you. I know what it is.]
That was in...uh... 50... in uh... ‘41, wasnt it?
Yeah. It was ‘41.[ ...]
We had to deliver one. And...uh... and then...uh...
she couldn’t be carting it around. Dad helped
her out. The windows [...] the windows to look at it... [you know...]
It was pretty bad. [...] And..uh..then...uh......
we were getting tomatoes that summer and she says
“Billy why don’t ya help [want to get] the tomatoes.” [Billy] says “I ain’t
very good at that.”
[...] plan on helping.
She went out to pick ripe tomatoes anybody would hold her... [... ...]
[green... red... as long as they're ripe...]
they all look the same to me. [...]
[... What's that got to do with Betty's healing?]
Well, I’m getting to it.
Oh
And...uh... she said that fall she's gonna be healed.
I forgot the dates now. 22nd of J... August I think.
I’m not sure of that. And...uh...
My uncle Tom was over to see her...
not her, to see Mom... that day. Her uncle.
And uh... He sat right there in a chair beside me and
And Roxy and George [Moore], I think [ I ran over ran over the place after that got the boy Richard Howie]
to come back and see it.
And we come back. And I was sat in a chair. And all I hear is that she's healed and she started praying and uncle Tom, he just kept watching her and I kinda looked at him
...and uh... well she, she was bent over and she couldn't straighten up or anything [and a]
what she says [look what the] God I can’t do [...] He can heal me
she stood up [at that time] and... you know, I knew something
something’s gonna happen but I didn’t know what.
And...uh...she stood up and we had a table in the dining room with grandma... my grandma’s old chairs with it.
She picked one up and held it up over her head! Before she
couldn’t even raise her hands... [...]
And uh...So she got to rest that afternoon or after, after that everybody left.
She got to pray that afternoon and we had to take her to
church that night. Our preacher wasn’t even there. He was
in Chicago. And she told everybody what
happened and almost everybody believed her you know,
because they knew how she was. She couldn't get around."
-------Transcript End-------
In some of her testimonies she mentions that she started witnessing about her healing about two weeks after it happened. She also mentions that Jesus asked her to already start witnessing in her teens. I did a search of old newspaper archives. I found two advertisements for meetings where she was going to give her testimony. One still in 1941 and one in 1942. The healing took place on 24 August 1941. So the newspaper articles do bear out her claims.
Clipped from the Aimes Daily Tribune, Ames, Iowa, Friday November 28 1941, page 5:
Clipped from the Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Brainerd, Minnesota, Tuesday March 3 1942, page 2:
Case 9: Man healed of a very severe, rare case of sarcoidosis that affected multiple organs in his body causing blindness and paralysis. He also suffered from diabetes and a damaged spine and knee. (Richard Tester).
Sarcoidosis is a disease caused by the immune system. It usually is not very severe. However, in about 5% of cases it can lead to death. Richard had a very severe case leading to many complications.
He was on insulin due to diabetes, was blind for about 4 to 5 years due to bleeding damaging his eyes. He was paralyzed on his one side due to a stroke.
Richard was in a wheelchair for approximately 9 to 10 years (approximately 1997 – 2006/7 – I am estimating). He was grossly overweight around 178 kg.
Doctors gave him 18 months to live.
He attended a healing meeting of John Mellor an Australian healing evangelist. After prayer his eyesight recovered immediately and all signs of sarcoidosis disappeared. In fact, everything was restored except his knee that was in a brace.
Some time later John prayed for his knee specifically and that was restored too, it was severely damaged – no knee cap or patella. You can see the outline of the skin that used to be under the brace in one of the Youtube videos below.
In addition, he lost a lot of weight after the first prayer, I assume with time. He mentions going from 178 to 106 I assume kg.
Below are two photos of him before he was healed. In the second photo you can see the blood that used to come out of his eyes that caused his blindness.
Here is a photo of Richard two years after the healing taken from this Youtube video:
(John Mellor is the interviewer)
Note the white skin on his left leg where a brace used to be that had just come off a bit earlier after he was prayed for.
Slightly after this video another one was made. The person speaking is John Mellor.
An Australian television station did a short piece on John Mellor. It is a very skeptically slanted piece. However, in it they mention Richard’s case. Which is why I put the link down below. You can see Richard here before, during the healing and shortly after. Although the piece is skeptical, they find no issues with Richard’s healing – which is very telling. They mention that his doctor said the change was remarkable and she could not explain how it happened. Richard also mentioned to them that while being prayed for his body went all tingly and then numb after which all pain left.
Here you can see Richard 3.5 years after the healing – relaying more information on how his knee was healed. This telling is quite remarkable too – worth listening to.
Here you can see Richard 4 years after his healing. He is on the left:
Case 10: Boy healed of eczema rash he had for 8 years, since age 3
The rash was all over his body. It was there permanently. It never went away in spite of applying lots of creams etc. After he was prayed for the rash went away after a period of 5 days. His father confirms his testimony. I like this testimony because it is given 2 to 3 years after the fact. It shows the healing was real and permanent. The fact that it went away within 5 days after battling with it for 8 years shows that it was highly likely due to the prayer that was offered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy8EH4MDQ2k
Cases 11 to 41: John G. Lake’s healing ministry investigated (under construction)
Below is an account of what transpired after the ministry of John G. Lake was challenged. His wife at that time was a stenographer. She noted down many events and sermons in their lives. John G. Lake ran a “Healing Room” in Spokane, Washington at that time where they ministered to sick people in prayer - asking God for supernatural healing. Below he got people that was healed through this ministry to come and publicly relate what happened after prayer.
I’ll still get the exact dates of this event but it was somewhere 1915 – 1935. Note that in those days there was no chemo therapy and antibiotics had not been discovered yet. TB, cancer and many infections was a death sentence.
Also note several regenerative healings.
This account is especially powerful as it is an account of an actual open and public event. All the people that told of their healing did so out of personal conviction. Some had friends or family corroborating what they said.
----------------------------------
0n June 15 we were waited upon at our Healing Rooms by a committee of the Better Business Bureau of the city of Spokane, whose duty in part it is to investigate the truthfulness of all public announcements appearing in the city papers. For some time previous to this, we had been publishing some of the wonderful testimonies of healing by the power of God that had taken place in the daily course of our ministry at the Divine Healing Institute.
Among the testimonies that had appeared was the wonderful testimony of Mrs. John A. Graham, nee' Peterson, whose healing astonished the medical world. The testimony of Reverend Joseph Osborne, left to die of Bright's disease at the Deaconess hospital, analysis showing 15 percent albumen; Reverend Charles B. LeDoux, healed when in very death from pneumonia; Mrs. Mary Mero Leana Lakey, Grover Risdon, Baby Agnes Young, Mrs. Mary Matheny of Portland, Oregon, who was healed of forty cancers, and others.
These testimonies were so astounding that complaints reached the Better Business Bureau to the effect that the testimonies must certainly be untrue. The Better Business Bureau promptly undertook an investigation and the call at our Healing Rooms was for that purpose.
In the presence of the committee, as they waited, we called eighteen persons whose testimonies had appeared in the public print, who in turn, gave testimony as to their own condition and the Wonder of their healing by the power of God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ under this ministry. After eighteen had been examined we presented them with names of many healed persons in the city, desiring them to go personally to these persons and investigate for themselves whether these things were so.
Realizing the amount of labor necessary for a proper investigation, I suggested to the committee that on Sunday, June 23, at three o'clock in the afternoon at our public service, we would present one-hundred cases of healed persons for their investigation and invited them to form a committee composed of physicians, lawyers, judges, educators, and businessmen, who should render a verdict.
In the days lapsing between the interview at the Healing Rooms and Sunday, June 23, the committee continued their investigation, inter-viewing persons whose names we had furnished them. On Friday, June 21, before our great Sunday meeting, we received a letter from the committee, assuring us that they had no desire in any way to interfere with the good which we were doing and gently let themselves down so that their appearance at the Sunday meeting would not be necessary. Two members of the committee saw us privately and said that the committee was astounded. They said, "We soon found out, upon investigation, you did not tell half of it."
One of the committee was visiting at Davenport, Washington, where the firm had a branch store. As he looked around the store he found printed announcements advertising a meeting which we were about to conduct at Davenport. He made inquiry from the manager as to why these announcements were being made through their store, and the manager replied as follows:
“The whole countryside around Davenport is aflame with surprise at the marvellous healing of a girl in this community, well-known to me, and, I believe, well-known to yourself, Miss Louise Reinboldt, daughter of Mr. Jake Reinboldt.
“About three-and-a-half years ago, Miss Reinboldt and her sister were operated on for what the doctors thought was appendicitis. The one girl died as the result of the operation. Louise came out of it unable to speak. She was taken to throat specialists, who pronounced her case absolutely incurable. Recently she was taken to Spokane to Mr. Lake's Healing Rooms and ministered to for twenty-six days. On the twenty-sixth day she startled her mother and family and, in fact, the whole countryside, by calling her mother on the long distance telephone and announcing to her in plain words the fact that she was healed."
While preparing for her daily visit to the Healing Rooms she suddenly discovered herself whistling, and said to herself, "If I can whistle I can speak also," and so discovered the paralyzed condition of her throat was truly healed.
Other members of the committee reported similar remarkable healings, and not being desirous of becoming a public laughingstock, they hastily wrote as above quoted.
Mr. Lake, however, announced that there would be no change in the program, but that the meeting as announced would take place, and if the Better Business Bureau would not take their place he would appeal to the public for a verdict. The meeting took place at the Masonic Temple before a large audience estimated by the police to number thousands, hundreds being compelled to stand throughout the entire service and hundreds were refused admittance.
After a brief statement by Dr. Lake on the reasons for the meeting and of the desire to glorify God by permitting the city and the world to know that Jesus Christ has never changed, that prayer was answerable today as it ever was, and the days of miracles had not passed, but were forever possible through the exercise of faith in God, the following testimonies were given:
Reverend R. Armstrong, a Methodist minister, of N2819 Avenue, healed of a sarcoma growing out of the left shoulder three times as large as a man's head, was healed in answer to prayer.
Reverend Thomas B. O'Reilly of 430 Rookery Building, testified to being healed of fits so violent that when stricken with them it required seven policemen to overpower and confine him in the hospital. Of his instantaneous healing and perfect restoration to health through the prayer of faith.
Baby Agnes Young, N169 Post Street, healed of extreme malnutrition. Patient at the Deaconess hospital for nine months, from the time of birth until her healing. She weighed six-and-a-half pounds at birth and at the age of nine months, only four and a half pounds. One evening, when one of the ministers from Reverend Lake's Healing Rooms called to minister to her, she was found in the dead room. The nurse, believing her to be dead, had removed her to the dead room. He took the child in his arms, praying the prayer of faith; God heard and answered. He removed her from the hospital and placed her in the hands of a Christian woman for nursing. In six weeks she was perfectly well and strong. The father and mother arose to corroborate the testimony. They are both members of Dr. Lake's church.
Mrs. Chittenden, pastor of the Church of the Truth at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, testified to her healing of cancers of the breast; one breast having been removed in an operation and the other breast becoming likewise affected with cancer. She was healed of the Lord in answer to prayer.
Mrs. Everetts, 1911 Boone Avenue, testified to her healing of varicose veins. She had suffered from them for thirty-eight years. The veins were enlarged until they were the size of goose eggs in spots. Under the right knee there was a sack of blood so large that the knee was made stiff. She had exhausted every medical method. After being ministered to at the Healing Rooms for a short period, she was entirely well and the veins are perfectly clear.
Mrs. Constance Hoag, Puyallup, Washington, broke her kneecap. A section of the bone protruded through the flesh. She wrote requesting that the ministers of the Healing Rooms lay their hands upon a handkerchief in faith and prayer and send it to her, in accordance with Acts 19:12. This was done. She applied the handkerchief to the knee and in fifteen minutes the pain had gone, and in an hour the bone had returned to place and was perfectly healed.
Mrs. Walker, Granby Court, was an invalid at the Deaconess hospital from internal cancer; after an exploratory operation was pronounced incurable by the doctors. She also had a severe case of neuritis. Her suffering was unspeakable. She testified to her healing and of her restoration to perfect health, the cancer having passed from her body in seven sections. Since then, many have been healed through her prayer and faith.
Mrs. John A. Graham, E369 Hartson, a nurse and hospital matron, was operated on for fibroid tumors. The generative organs were removed and at a later date, she was operated on a second time for gallstones. The operation not being a success, she was eventually left to die, and when in the throes of death and unconscious, she was healed by the power of God in answer to prayer of one of the ministers called from the Healing Rooms. The organs that had been removed in the operation regrew in the body, and she became a normal woman and a mother. (Wonderful applause.)
Mr. Asa Hill, a farmer from Palouse, Washington, testified that he had been a rheumatic cripple for fifteen years and was instantly healed at a meeting conducted by Mr. Lake, through prayer with the laying on of hands. The meeting was held at a theater at Moscow, Idaho.
Mrs. Wolverton was injured in a Great Northern railroad wreck and was awarded large damages by the court. (See court record.) Physicians testified her injuries to be such that motherhood was impossible. After her marriage, the physician's testimony was confirmed. She was healed in answer to prayer and gave birth to a son and since has given birth to twins.
Miss Jennie Walsh, S116 Fiske Street, had a disease of the gall bladder, which became filled with pus. Her physicians insisted on an immediate operation to save her life. Mr. Lake laid hands upon her in prayer at eleven o'clock p.m. Ten minutes afterward her pain ceased, the pus emptied from the bladder naturally, and she was entirely healed.
Mrs. Lamphear, 115 1/2 Sprague Avenue, was an invalid for eleven years, suffering from prolapse of the stomach, bowels, and uterus, also from tuberculosis and rheumatism. Her husband carried her from place to place in his arms. After eleven years of terrible suffering upon the advice of her physicians, who were unable to assist her she was sent to Soap Lake, Oregon, for bath treatments. Ordinary baths had no effect on her, and the superintendent testified that they had finally placed her in super-heated baths, hotter than they had ever put any human being in before. Through this treatment an abnormal growth was started in the left leg and foot. Her leg became three inches longer than the other and her foot one inch too long. A bone as large as an orange grew on the knee. She received an instant healing of rheumatism. The leg shortened at the rate of an inch a week, the foot also shortened to its normal length, and the bone growth on the knee totally disappeared. Her tuberculosis was healed and she is praising God for His goodness. She was born without the outer lobe on her ear, it also grew on.
Mrs. Ben Eastman, nee Koch, 1115 First Avenue, was pronounced incurable from tubercular glands by seventy-three physicians. She was operated on twenty-six times and remained in the same dying condition. Later she was taken to the Osteopathic Institute in Los Angeles, California, and was a patient there for three-and-a-half years. Her father testified that his daughter's illness cost him three houses in the city of Davenport, a valuable wheat ranch of one-hundred and sixty acres, one-hundred-forty-seven carloads of wood, and all the money he had. She is now healed of the Lord and since then has become the happy wife of Mr. Ben Eastman.
Mrs. Carter, of S714 Sherman Street, wife of Policeman Carter, was examined by seven physicians who pronounced her to be suffering from a fibroid tumor, estimated to weigh fifteen pounds. She was ministered to at the Healing Rooms at four-thirty in the afternoon and at eleven o'clock the next day, returned to the Healing Rooms perfectly healed and wearing her corsets. The enormous tumor dematerialized. (See her wonderful testimony in our pamphlet, "The story of S714 Sherman Street.")
Mrs. O. D. Stutsman, Hansen Apartments, testified to having been an invalid for thirteen years. On one occasion, she lay in the Sacred Heart Hospital with a twenty-pound weight attached to her foot for thirty-two days, while suffering from inflammatory rheumatism. Her suffering was so intense that she begged her husband to take her home preferring to remain a cripple rather than endure such suffering. The Reverend Lake was called to minister to her at her home; as prayer was offered the power of the Spirit of God surged through her. Five minutes after his hands were laid upon her she arose from her bed, perfectly healed.
Mr John Dewitt of Granby Court, testified on behalf of Frederick Barnard, thirty-two years of age, who was injured in his babyhood tom a fall from a baby cab, causing curvature of the spine. As he grew to boyhood and manhood he was never able to take part in the sports common to boyhood and manhood. When the great war came on he would stand around the recruiting office, longing and covetously watching the men who enlisted for the war. One day he expressed to Mr. Dewitt the sorrow of his soul that he was not able to enlist also. Mr. Dewitt told him of Mr. Lake's Healing Rooms and invited him to come and be ministered to. The curvature of his spine straightened and his height increased one inch. He applied for enlistment in the Canadian army and was accepted by the army physician as first class and sent abroad.
GOD IN SURGERY
Mrs. O. Gilbertson, N4115 Helena Street, testified that through disease her hip came out of joint and her limb would turn like the leg of a doll, showing that it was entirely out of the socket. Her home is about five miles distant from the Healing Rooms. Reverend Lake and his co-workers engaged in prayer for her at the Healing Rooms, and as prayer was offered the power of God came upon her, resetting the joint.
The following remarks were made by the Reverend Lake as the testimony was given: "Do you hear it, you folks who worship a dead Christ? You doctors hear it? You preachers who lie to the people and say the days of miracles are past, do you hear it? You doubters hear it? God set the woman's hip. Because faith in God applied the blessed power of God to her life and limb."
Now comes one of the most remarkable cases in history. The Risdon family stood holding their six-year-old son on their shoulders. This boy was born with a closed head. In consequence, as he increased in years, the skull was forced upward like the roof of a house, the forehead and the back of the head also being forced out in similar manner giving the head the appearance of the hull of a yacht upside down. The pressure on the brain caused the right side to become paralyzed and the child was dumb. (
Read more detail on this case here.)
Physicians said that nothing could be done for him until he was twelve years old, and then the entire top of the head would have to be removed, the sides of the skull expanded and the entire head covered with a silver plate. Under divine healing ministration, in answer to prayer the bones softened, the head expanded, the skull was reduced to its normal size, the paralysis disappeared, and the dumbness was gone. He speaks like other children and now attends the public school.
Remarks by Reverend Lake: "I want you to see that in the Spirit of God there is a science far beyond physical or psychological science and the man or woman who enters into the Spirit relation with God and exercises His power, is most scientific; that the power of God in this instance was sufficient to soften the bones of the head, expand the skull, and bring the head down to normal when the child was four-and-a-half years old. Something that no medicine could do and no surgical operation could accomplish without endangering the life of the child."
CASTING OUT OF DEMONS AND HEALING OF THE INSANE
Mrs. Lena Lakey, W116 Riverside Avenue, testified of having suffered with violent insanity. She was a cook at a lumber camp. She told of the men at the camp endeavoring to overpower her and tie her in the bed; of her tearing the bed to pieces and braking her arms free; of how she struck one man with the side of the bed, rendering him unconscious. Another was in the hospital three weeks recovering from injuries. She escaped into the woods in a drenching rain. Eventually falling exhausted in a copse of trees, where she lay unconscious for six hours until a search party found her.
She was brought to Spokane in an auto by six men and was tied with ropes. Before taking her to the court to be committed to the insane asylum, they decided to take her to the Healing Rooms. Reverend Lake laid his hands on her in prayer and the demons were cast out and she was instantly healed. An abscess in her side, from which she had suffered for fifteen years, totally disappeared in twentv-four hours, and a rheumatic bone deposit between the joints of the fingers and toes, so extensive that it forced the joint apart, was gone in forty-eight hours. She was made every whit whole.
Mrs. Holder gave testimony of healing by the power of God in answer to prayer, having been healed from insanity while an inmate of the Medical Lake Insane Asylum, in answer to the prayers of Mr. Lake and his assistants.
OTHER INCURABLES
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lotz stood holding their baby in their arms. The baby developed pus in the kidney and was pronounced incurable by several physicians. The child was brought to the Healing Rooms. Reverend Lake laid his hands upon the child in prayer and it was instantly healed.
Mr. Allen, pastor of the Pentecostal mission, was dying of pellagra'. He was carried unconscious from the train. The men thought him to be dead and put him in the baggage room. He was instantly healed through the laying on of hands and prayer. His case is a matter of record by the government pellagra investigation commission.
Mrs. Ben Long, 1971 Atlantic Street, testified to being instantly healed of paralysis of the left side. She was brought to the Healing Rooms and ministered to by Dr. Lake, and when ten feet from the Healing Room door she found that she had been made whole. Discovering that she was well, she returned to the waiting room and showed herself to Mr. Lake and offered praise to God for her healing.
Mrs. John Dewitt, Granby Court, gave testimony to having been healed of neuritis after years of suffering. Later she was healed when in a state of apparent death following two strokes. A group of friends were present and witnessed her instant healing as Reverend Lake prayed.
Mrs. Mary Mero, lady in waiting at the Healing Rooms, who resides at W717 Nora Avenue, broke her ankle when a child. In endeavoring to favor the broken ankle, the other ankle became diseased and for fifty years she had suffered violently. She was instantly healed after she was ministered to at the healing rooms. She was also healed of ulcers of the stomach after twenty years of suffering.
Mrs. Miles Pearson, E2815 Illinois Avenue, suffered a broken a year ago. It was not properly set and remained inflamed and swollen as though the leg would burst. She was healed in answer to prayer two weeks ago.
Mrs. Thomas Olsen, Rowan Street, healed when dying of internal cancer. For ten days she had neither touched food or drink. A group of Christian friends gathered about her and prayed. As prayer was offered, Jesus appeared to her, standing in front of her, reaching out His hands appealingly. She endeavored to rise from her wheelchair and grasp the hands of her Lord and as she did so thrills of divine life flashed through her body and she was healed. Two days later she vomited the entire cancer, body and roots.
Mrs. Richards, Sandpoint, Idaho, testified that she had been healed when dying of paralysis on one side and tumors. After prayer the tumors loosened and passed from the body.
Mrs. Allen of Waverly, rising in audience with a friend who corroborated her testimony, was dying from internal cancers. She was brought to Spokane by Mr. Ramey, a hardware merchant of Waverly. She was perfectly healed and is now earning her living as a saleslady.
Mrs. Kellum, Portland, Oregon, testified to having been blind nine years. As prayer was offered a vision of Jesus laying His hands upon her eyes appeared to her, and she was instantly healed.
Addressing the audience, Mr. Lake said: "All persons who have been healed by the power of God and who desire to add their testimony to these who have already been given, stand." Two hundred and sixty seven persons arose. While they stood Mr. Lake said: "Gentlemen of the committee and audience, you see these witnesses, you have heard the testimonies. Gentlemen of the committee and audience, has this been a fair presentation? "
(Shouts of "Yes. Yes," from all parts of the house.)
Did God heal these people?
(Cries of "Yes, Yes!”)
"Is, divine healing a fact?"
(Replies from audience, “It surely is.”)
“Gentlemen of the committee and audience are you entirely satisfied?"
(Replies from the audience, "Indeed we are”)
The services were then closed with the following prayer of consecration, spoken clause by clause by the Reverend Lake and repeated by the audience.
MY GOD AND FATHER
In Jesus' name I come to Thee, take me as I am. Make me what I ought to be, in spirit, in soul, in body. Give me power to do right, if I have wronged any. To repent, to confess, to restore. No matter what it cost, wash me in the blood of Jesus, that I may now become Thy chid and manifest Thee, in a perfect spirit, a holy mind, a sickles body — Amen
Cases 42 and 43: Eyewitnesses that attended the Azusa Street Revival relates how they were healed from deafness and TB
From Wikipedia:
The Azusa Street Revival was a historic revival meeting that took place in Los Angeles, California. It was led by William J. Seymour, an African American preacher. It began with a meeting on April 9, 1906, and continued until roughly 1915. The revival was characterized by spiritual experiences accompanied with testimonies of physical healing miracles, worship services and speaking in tongues. The participants were criticized by some secular media and Christian theologians for behaviors considered to be outrageous and unorthodox, especially at the time. Today, the revival is considered by historians to be the primary catalyst for the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20th century.
This video was shot around 1974 – 1975, I think. There is a latter part shot in 1991. However, the relevant part is the earlier shoot.
At around 6:30 into the video you will find the testimonies of Miss Maddy Cummings and Reverend Lawrence Cantlay (my spelling may be wrong). They attended the revival when they were young. Lawrence went to the revival meetings to seek out healing from TB which in those days was a very serious disease. Antibiotics did not exist yet. He received healing. Miss Cummings relates that she was deaf as a young girl and that because of that she could not attend school. She also relates how she was healed from deafness and how the healing lasted up to the present day when the video was shot.
Here is the video link:
Case 44: Reinhard Bonnke’s grandfather healed through prayer after months of suffering.
Here in the video below Reinhard Bonnke relates how his German grandfather was healed after being prayed for by an American missionary. This healing caused his family to become Christians. Reinhard Bonnke was born 18 years after this event. This in part influenced him to become an evangelist. He became a major evangelist, one of the most influential that ever lived. I include this healing testimony because it was powerful enough to convert a whole family and had a multigenerational impact. It was not a superficial healing that lasted a day or that was faked.
To see his testimony on this healing scroll to 4:30 in the video below:
Christopher suffered from what boils down to a nonfunctioning stomach. He had to feed food directly into his intestines with a tube bypassing his stomach. He also needed to drain out whatever did end up in his stomach with another tube. He continued like this for 16 years.
It seems that spontaneous remission of this type of condition does not happen.
After prayer by Bruce van Natta in November 2011 his stomach was completely healed. A medical article linked to from here was published 7 years later in 2018 at which time his stomach was still functioning normally.
See the testimony of him and his parents below. Especially note at 16:00 minutes into the video his mother’s description of seeing first the top tube head and then the second tube head starting to vibrate as the healing power moved down his intestines while they were praying.
Our son was born with a rare digestive disorder called Chronic Pseudo Obstruction Syndrome. His stomach was paralyzed, and he had to have a feeding tube to survive. On Nov. 6, 2011 he was prayed for at a church in Oregon. The Holy Spirit came over him and blessed him with an instant healing MIRACLE after 16 years of chronic illness! Now his feeding tubes have been removed, and he is eating everything in sight. Our God lives, loves, and heals! Blog at www.christophersmiraclestory.blogspot.com
Here, see an in-depth medical / scientific article that was published seven years after the healing. From this article you can also link to notes from his medical history.
Here is a quote from the article above representing Christopher’s perspective:
“Living with feeding tubes was a struggle, to say the least. Growing up being an active child, it was difficult to get the hydration and nutrition necessary with a drip feeding process. During the prayer, I felt an electric shock that started from my right shoulder traveling down through my stomach. That was the moment that I knew I had been touched by the holy spirit. Since I have been healed of my illness, I have had more energy than ever before, and have thoroughly enjoyed the new adventure of trying all different types of foods. I have entered into the medical field in search to help the sick and needy, and to give back the great care I received as a patient.”
Case 46: Man healed of Tuberculosis after persistent prayer.
Below is a healing testimony related by Derek Prince. He relates a case related to him in the 1940s before he was a Christian by the wife of the family that introduced him to Christianity. This testimony below was given towards the end of Derek’s life. The woman told him how that after praying daily for 10 years for her husband to be healed of Tuberculosis, one day, while praying she heard an audible voice telling her to claim the healing. She did so and her husband was instantly healed. TB was an incurable disease in those days.
This healing was related to Derek long after the fact. It was real and permanent.
Derek Prince became a very powerful Christian teacher that reached many people all over the world.
Case 47: Woman suffering from typhoid fever starts responding to treatment after prayer and husband returns back to life after a motorcycle accident:
**Ok, I received more detailed info on this case so I am amending this entry. I will again re-interview this person in another week or so.
This is an interesting case. The first part happened around 1998 in Lagos Nigeria. It is one of those cases people mention in passing that does not get written down.
It was once asked in a Bible study that I attend in Sunnyside, South Africa, in 2019, what made each person there to become a believer?
One of our members, Amaka, from Nigeria, originally mentioned this interesting case. She attended a Roman Catholic church at the time.
(I received more info from her afterwards and so I add the info I have received too.)
Her mother became ill with Typhoid fever and ended up in hospital. Her condition was not great and after about a week the doctor called Amaka and told her that her mother’s pulse and everything was going down and she was not responding. The doctor told her to start praying – he told her only God could revive her. Amaka decided to run over to her church which was nearby. In her church was a group of Charismatic Catholic believers that prayed for healings and such things. She specifically remembers a person in the group called Sunday.
They went with her back to the hospital and started praying for her mother. While praying her mother sneezed after which her mother came back and started responding to treatment. After this the doctor kept her mother in the hospital another week before she was discharged. Her mother is still alive to this day.
Amaka related to me that some time later her father was in a motorcycle accident. The accident took place in front of a hospital. The people took him straight into the hospital.
When she arrived at her father’s bedside he was already covered with a bedsheet and they informed her that he had passed away. Her mother was with her father crying and praying. Her uncle and his wife were outside lamenting over the fact that her father had passed away. They were all waiting for the father’s younger brother to come and sign so that his body could be taken to the mortuary. In that time in Nigeria women could not or did not sign for that.
Amaka proceeded to call the same people that had prayed for her mother to come and pray for her father. She had joined this group by then - since the incident with her mother. By now she was a minister in the group. She proceeded to pray for her father herself while they were still on the way.
After some time of praying and praying the father sneezed and came back to life.
They proceeded to ask him what had happened. He told them that he was going and a man that was dressed like a bishop stopped him and told him to go back because his family still needed him. So, this man that was dressed like a bishop intervened and sent him back.
They proceeded to call the doctor at this point and showed the doctor that he was shaking. He examined Amaka’s father and discovered that he was alive again. He was amazed and shocked. After the doctor treated her father, he asked Amaka what church she belonged to. She responded that she was a Catholic but a charismatic Catholic. Some family members got quite scared when they saw what had happened and some even tried to run away.
Case 48: Man healed of asthma at a church / crusade meeting:
This again is a healing mentioned to me in passing – not written down by anybody. I attended a Bible study of the AFM in Sunnyside on Wednesdays around 2007 (this date is an estimate). We were a small group of believers and the pastor of the church used to lead it. Attending regularly was an elderly couple - I estimate in their sixties. They related to me how they became Christians in the early 1980s. They also told me how the husband used to suffer from asthma. They attended a service of the AFM. I can’t recall whether it was a crusade or not but it seemed to be that the pastor was a visiting pastor. They mentioned that somewhere through the process the pastor mentioned to the husband that he saw black or something black in his lungs. He proceeded to pray for the husband. The couple told me that since that day the husband never suffered from asthma again. I met them (as I worked it out) several decades later – I think about 20 years – 20 years free of asthma.
Case 49: Man healed of throat cancer after prayer:
Again, a healing encountered in passing – not written down. I was just starting to attend a Pentecostal church in Hatfield, Pretoria in 1999 / 2000. I think the person who invited me to the church told me of a person who earlier had been prayed for and had been healed of throat cancer at a special meeting of that church.
One day – I think it was a Sunday – somebody pointed out to me that the person had returned to church. The church I had started to attend was multiracial. However, the church this person attended was not and he had wanted to bring two non white people to church and so he picked the Pentecostal church I was attending.
I was quite interested in such things at the time since healings is proof that Jesus is real and so I made a point of it to talk to him after the service.
He related to me how he had throat cancer once or twice before and how chemo therapy (and operations if I remember correctly) had resolved it, however the cancer returned in such a way that he was able to feel the tumors in his throat with his hand.
The day he attended the service of the church I was at (before I visited the first time) he went forward for prayer for healing. He told me that the pastor prayed for him a first time, however nothing happened. He felt his throat and there was no change. The pastor prayed for him again. This time when he examined his throat it seemed that there was a slight change. The pastor prayed for him a third time. This time the tumors or nodules could not be felt anymore.
It is now many years ago – I never saw the person again. At the time the way he related it to me it seemed that the healing really happened and that it had not reverted at the point I spoke to him. I think it was several months – but at least several weeks after the event that I met him.
Case 50: Woman healed of nodule in the finger painful when pressured.
This healing was related to me by my business partner. His wife had a small growth in one of her fingers. It was very small and painful to pressure. Around 2010 (this date is an estimate) a pastor visited our church from the USA. He held a number of meetings. At the end of the meetings he prayed for healing. The wife of my business partner went forward for prayer.
The pastor anointed her finger with oil and prayed for it. He repeated this for 3 consecutive nights.
After the first night nothing really happened. After the second night the pain was absent when the nodule was pressured. After the third night the growth disappeared.
I note this healing because I personally know the people involved and so I know they are telling the truth.
I note this video in this section because the person relating it was a very eminent doctor. Atheists always maintain that there are no such events and no credible accounts or witnesses to them. However (once again) my conclusion is that they have not really researched the topic. They decide that physicalism is true and therefore these types of things cannot happen. Then once they have decided that these things can never happen, they decide even more firmly that they in fact do never happen and therefore that they are atheists. Therefore, circular reasoning based on an arbitrary decision that there is nothing beyond the physical although there is no actual logical, scientific or other reason to think so – absolutely anything is possible.
This video does not prove anything in terms of which religions may be correct or not. However, it does falsify physicalism. You just need one supernatural event in all of human history across all religions to prove that physicalism is wrong.
If physicalism is a false premise then anything is possible – any religion could be true and then you need to find out which one.
Case 53: Woman healed of Lyme disease, scoliosis, neck injury and thumb injury
This testimony details the healing of a young woman, Jessica Reid, from Lyme disease, scoliosis, neck injury and a thumb injury. I decided to link to this healing because she gives the testimony at a church type gathering in front of a crowd of people that know her. Her parents are present in the crowd too making it unlikely that she is lying. In addition, this testimony was given a while after the fact indicating that the change was real and long lasting. Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine.
Case 54: Woman’s father healed from paralysis caused by Von Recklinghausen’s disease after prayer
https://youtu.be/aeQEUnhSB0k
In this video a woman relates how her father became paralyzed due to complications of Von Recklinghausen’s disease – a genetic disorder. Doctors told him that he would never get better. She relates how a friend of him and himself prayed to Jesus for healing and how he got better the next morning.
I include this testimony because it is related by family long after the fact. The healing was therefore real and long lasting.
Case 55: Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis, relates his encounter with Jesus after learning of his mother’s terminal cancer.
In the linked video Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis (
C. S. Lewis - Wikipedia), relates how he learned about his mother’s terminal cancer. He also relates his encounter with Jesus when he went into a church to pray about his mother. He also relates about her abrupt remission after this prayer that lasted for a period of four years.
Case 56: A pastor tells of the healing of a paraplegic man called Bill
Here a pastor relates how Bill, a paraplegic, was healed while at home. He relates how they often prayed for him with no success. He relates how the man was healed in the end after taking a stand of faith.
gives an account of an NDE related by another patient.
I add this video because I have known this pastor for more than 20 years. I heard these same testimonies repeated many times during that time.
https://youtu.be/XcwxgXCvQIM
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